Hispanics wary of Iraq war, poll shows

ANDY NETZEL, Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

Published 6:30 am, Wednesday, February 19, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Hispanics are more leery of a war against Iraq than the rest of the U.S. population and are fearful of government harassment should there be a war, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center poll.

Only 48 percent of Hispanics support invading Iraq, compared with 66 percent of all Americans. This reflects the poll's findings that the prospect of a war against Iraq distresses the Hispanic community, said Roberto Suro, the director of the poll.

"One thing you can see is there are very substantial worries about the economic impact," he said. "When we specifically asked whether you feared losing your job, you had half of Hispanics say they were afraid."

"As we tighten down our borders, we begin to express concern about people we don't recognize immediately," he said. "For many Americans that means being watchful. For immigrated Americans, that means being watched."

The poll finds these concerns especially true of Hispanics not born in the United States. Sixty-four percent of foreign-born respondents said they were concerned there would be government and police harassment because of the color of their skin.

Suro, who directed the poll of 400 Hispanic adults over the weekend, said this is consistent with other surveys of foreign-born citizens.

"Foreign-born citizens, whether they are Latino or not, see the world differently" than those born in the United States, he said. "Particularly around issues that rouse patriotism or loyalism, there is a hesitancy to support a national effort."

Hispanics fall in line with the United States as a whole when it comes to giving U.N. inspectors more time to inspect Iraq, with 56 percent asking for more time, compared with 59 percent of all Americans.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said he often hears his constituency -- which is predominately Latino -- bad-mouth a war with Iraq.

Last weekend in an El Paso Wal-Mart, two mothers stopped Reyes to talk to him about their sons, whose military units are based in the Persian Gulf region.

"They approached me because their sons are in Saudi Arabia," Reyes said. "One of them even cried, saying she didn't understand why we were going into a war that didn't appear to be justified."

He said he has similar stories for nearly every place he visits in El Paso, and he's not surprised Hispanics oppose the war. Members of his constituency also have expressed fears of being victims of racial profiling and government harassment.

Reyes said if "Bush goes to war and we start seeing the number of casualties that the Pentagon is projecting," it will hurt him in the 2004 presidential election.

But Jeff Gulati, a Wellesley College political science professor, said the president should not be discouraged by the poll results. Fifty-two percent of the Hispanics who were born in the United States support the war.

"The president has worked very hard to cultivate support among the Latino population," he said. "President Bush and Republicans should see this and be quite heartened by these results."

The poll represents a scientific sample of Hispanics across the country, based on Census data. The telephone poll, conducted Thursday through Sunday, has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points. The sample was representative of the Latino adult population in terms of gender, age, education, national origins and region.